Move from Office 365 A1 to Nextcloud

Take it out

1. 1

   Step 1

   Find the renewal before you move anyone

   Microsoft's education FAQ says web-direct sales of Office 365 A1 stopped on November 5, 2026. Partner sales end on May 1, 2027. The plan retires on January 1, 2028. An enrollment that began before May 1, 2027 keeps its A1 licenses until that term ends. At a renewal or expiration on or after January 1, 2028, the licenses cannot be renewed. Write down that date. The no-cost A0 plan does not include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, or Teams. The portfolio table still marks OneDrive for Business and the Office apps on A0.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Copy the files that should leave SharePoint and OneDrive

   Download the libraries you will keep. Shared links do not survive a copy onto another server. The service description says A1 includes SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. This guide did not click through a tenant admin center.

3. 3

   Step 3

   Export the calendar, and treat mail as its own job

   Save calendars as ICS from Outlook or the web. The service description says A1 includes Exchange Online Plan 1. Nextcloud Mail is a client. It does not become the mailbox. A mail server such as mailcow is a separate install. Do not promise both in the same weekend.

Put it in

1. 1

   Step 1

   Put the files on Nextcloud

   Nextcloud is AGPL-3.0. A small team fits in the documented Docker or snap install. Upload the libraries and turn on the desktop client for the people who sync. This guide did not run that install.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Add the office app, Talk, and the calendar

   Browser editing needs Collabora or ONLYOFFICE on the same server. Talk is the chat. The calendar app is part of the hub. Desktop Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing without a server is LibreOffice, which is a different install.

3. 3

   Step 3

   Decide where the student mailbox goes

   If A0 is enough because the school can live without Exchange, leave mail off the new server and keep OneDrive only until the renewal. If students still need a mailbox on the school domain, install a mail server and create the accounts there. Nextcloud will not create them from an A1 license list. This guide did not find a Microsoft page that exports an education tenant into Nextcloud.

What you lose

• Teams meetings, SharePoint permissions, and Exchange rules

  Those do not import. Recreate the one calendar, the one chat, and the folder permissions people use. Class Notebook and Assignments are not Nextcloud apps.

• A0 is not the same product

  A0 is still Microsoft, at no additional cost, for eligible students at a school with paid faculty coverage on A2 or higher who use Windows devices for school. It keeps Office and OneDrive. It does not keep Exchange, SharePoint, or Teams. Moving to Nextcloud is for a school that does not want the remaining Microsoft pieces either.

• Alumni mail is a different retirement

  Free Exchange Online for Alumni also retires on January 1, 2028. The replacement Microsoft names is a paid alumni mailbox. Nextcloud does not take those mailboxes in one step.